A Case of Curiousity
by ZeroPanda
Summary: L takes an interest in a man who supposedly makes genius deductions in his sleep.
1. Chapter 1

_**A Case of Curiousity: Chapter One**_

**Okayy! So you have stumbled upon my very first three-shot fanfic. This is a Detective Conan / Death Note crossover. It's very short, and this first chapter I will admit is a little slow. Hopefully you find that the story picks up a bit as you read on. **

**If not, then atleast it's not too long (:**

**Disclaimer:**** Panda does not claim to own Death Note **_**or **_**Detective Conan. The only original characters in this story are Kiski Rina, Ueshima Hideaki, Ueshima Ryo, Sugiyama Daichi, and Fujiwara Kimiko. I made them up. **

* * *

L sat on the couch of a random hotel in an undisclosed location, not even the country could be determined from the outward appearances of the nondescript building. L, like any other person would, was watching the news. Only, unlike the common tv owning citizen, L was not just watching _one_. No, L - the great Detective L, considered to be the number one detective of his time - was watching _all _of the news channels he could have broadcasted to his suite. There was no questioning how the man managed to have them each on their own screen of their own tv, nor how he had been able to get so many small televisions into his room, it simply was so.

L had had a lack of interesting cases to work on as of late, and he was quite bored. He was on the lookout for just about anything that could be of potential interest, and he was not leaving any corner of the world out of his range. Not much was going on that he could do anything about. There were segments on war, poverty, open-and-shut cases, and simple robberies - none of which warranted the man's attention.

He was currently holding the remote of, well, to be honest he didn't know which tv the remote belonged to. Instead, he relied on hitting the 'channel up' button and waiting to see which one would respond. He came to find that the remote belonged to the television broadcasting Japanese events, and he turned 85% of his attention towards it, leaving a little left over for the other channels in case something interesting happened. He didn't want to miss anything.

As he flipped to a new station on that particular television, he came to a stop on one broadcasting a report on one 'Mouri Kogoro'. L had indeed heard the name before. It was becoming increasingly more popular as the days went by. Mouri's fame seemed to materialize out of no where, and it bothered L rightly so. No one became such a success overnight, good deductive skills were not something you could just learn in your sleep. L continued to watch the program as it interviewed the man. L's conclusion: the man was a complete idiot. When the interviewer would ask him questions, he would babble about something off topic or steer the conversation in a new direction, other times he would get this large grin that was definitely one of gloating. Something just seemed off about him.

As if that weren't enough, it seemed as if death followed the man everywhere he went. L looked up his cases; hotels, restaurants, and sometimes just walking down the street, the man couldn't go anywhere without someone dying! It was rather fascinating to L, at the same time almost worrisome. How could one person be plagued by so much misfortune? L decided he would need to keep an eye on this Mouri Kogoro person.

---

By the time L had finished watching every televised deduction Mouri Kogoro had ever made, only a day had passed. L had noted a few things while he watched. One was that Mouri Kogoro usually made false accusations and completely idiotic assumptions as the case went on. Second, after he was finished, a child of no more than ten years of age would 'accidently' give the investigators crucial clues to solving the puzzle, as if he were leading them around by their hands. Lastly, Mouri-san would do a sort of dance and mumble incoherently before falling conveniently in a chair, asleep. He would then proceed to give his famous deductions.

It was almost as if someone were putting him to sleep and making the deductions for him. As far as L could tell, Mouri-san was taking credit for things he couldn't even remember saying. This made L wonder; could someone be solving his cases for him? If so, does he know about it? L wanted to know, and he decided at that moment that he would just have to attend one of Mouri-san's cases in person.

L called up his trusty companion Watari, and told him of his decision. Watari was a bit shocked, it seems not even the man who knew L the longest of all could predict the young detective's moves. Watari agreed though, and began prepartions to leave for Japan immediately after.

---

As soon as L was in Japan, he went straight to the Mouri residence to scope things out. As luck would have it, both of the younger ones were off to school, and by what L had heard as Mouri Ran was leaving, Mouri-san was asleep in a drunken stupor in his office. It left L with a window to plant cameras in the main areas of the home, leaving out the bathroom and the girl's bedroom in order to give her some privacy. He realized that perhaps he was taking things pretty far considering all he had was a basic assumption with no evidence supporting it, but this was just how L worked.

Watari hooked the cameras up to a feed in a hotel room he already had prepared before they arrived. Together, the two began their observations on the Mouri residence.

---

Every morning, Mouri Ran and Edogawa Conan would go to school. They split halfway after meeting up with their friends, and went in seperate directions towards their respective schools. After school, the girl would either go out shopping with her friend Suzuki Sonoko, or go home. She also had karate practice. As for the boy, he would hang out with his four friends solving small mysteries around town and for their classmates. It was about all they talked about, other than Kamen Yaiba. L suspected they would grow to be great policemen or detectives someday. When he wasn't with his friends, he was at one Agasa hakase's home, along with Haibara Ai who was a part of his group of friends. L had done his research on the middle aged man. He was an inventor who was known for his crazy and unique creations that many times would backfire in development. He was also neighbor and friend of the Kudous. Kudou Yuusaku - a genius mystery writer, and his wife Kudou Yukiko - an ex-actress turned housewife. Their son, Kudou Shinichi, a highschool detective known for his brilliant deductive skills, was rumored to have been killed or something of the like, as he had been mysteriously absent for the past months. This raised L's interest another notch. As it seemed, even though Kudou was gone, no one seemed to be too worried and no one was looking for him.

As it is, the Kudou mansion stands completely devoid of people. No one was currently living in the large home, as the parents live in America, and the son "away on a serious case". Personally, L would like to know what case could be serious enough to keep a young detective away from home so long that L himself did not know about. It was worth looking into.

Today, about three days after L began his observations, the man decided to tail the youngest resident of the Mouri household. He was becoming increasingly more interesting to L, as he did not always act quite his age. In fact, sometimes L believed him to be an adult, despite his obviously child-like appearance. It was both suspicious, and curious. Quite curious, indeed.

**

* * *

**

**Yep. So that is the first chapter. **

**I hope it wasn't as awful as I thought it was. Also, I apologize for any mistakes both in this chapter and the next ones. Seriously, editing your own crap is the most boring thing in the world. Hehe**


	2. Chapter 2

_**A Case of Curiousity: Chapter Two**_

**Conan.**

* * *

Today started out as every other day did for Conan. He woke up, got ready, and left for school with Ran. He would then meet up with his friends and they would split, going their separate ways to school. Ayumi was in a particularly good mood that day, and she was literally hanging off of Conan's arm, telling her all about her amazing night the night before. Conan wasn't really listening. He was, in fact, staring off into space.

He didn't come around until he felt a tug on his other arm. They were almost to school now, only a few more blocks. Conan turned to see a worried looking shrunken scientest, gripping tightly at his shirt sleeve. Conan managed to pry Ayumi off of him without much fuss, and he fell behind a bit, knowing that there was something wrong with Ai that she could not speak about in front of the others. None of them seemed to notice as the pair fell back and out of hearing distance of their hushed voices.

"What's up, Haibara?" he asked, giving her a sincere look. He knew that the expression on Ai's face meant something serious. Her widened eyes turned on him and she edged even closer to him.

"There's a man back there," she started, keeping her face hidden from view from anyone behind them as she spoke, "he's been following us for a while." This startled the miniature detective, and he gave a furtive glance behind them. There was indeed a man following them. And not just any man. No, this man was quite strange. He didn't think the man was anyone from the Black Organization, considering his obvious lack of black clothes. The man was, though, quite creepy looking. He wore a white long sleeve shirt, and baggy blue jeans. His sneakers were old and worn. He had black, messy hair that hung low into charcoal black eyes. The man looked like he never slept, considering the dark rings under his eyes. It made him have an almost haunted look. Paired with the way the man walked, hunched over slightly, Conan understood why Ai was so freaked out. This man was downright creepy. He almost gave Conan the chills. He looked back in front of them as they approached the school.

"Don't worry about it," Conan said softly, attempting to soothe the girl next to him, "he doesn't look like one of them. He's probably not even following us. He could just be going the same way as us." Ai said nothing as they walked into the doors of the school. They didn't mention it any further, as the other children now had their full attention on them.

---

The end of the day came, and to the disappointment of the Shounen Tanteidan, no new cases. They ran around the city, trying to keep entertained. It was nothing too interesting, really. Conan decided to go home a bit earlier than usual. He just wasn't feeling into the kid act today. He gave his farewells to the children and Haibara, and made his way back home.

As he entered the residence, he noticed that Ran wasn't home yet. When he asked Kogoro, he simply said that she had gone out with Sonoko and wouldn't be back until later. Conan just barely caught Kogoro mumbling that she wouldn't be home for dinner. Conan rolled his eyes and made his way to the couch to read a book.

When dinner time did come around, Kogoro decided to just eat out at a cheap diner or something. And so they did. They left the house in search of somewhere cheap to eat. They decided on a small diner not too far from their home, only about a block or two away.

Entering the diner, they made their way to a booth near the center of the restaurant, by a window. As they went, Conan's eyes immediately landed on a familiar figure. This person was someone you couldn't forget, and as Conan allowed his gaze to linger as they passed, he wondered if it was merely a coincidence that the creepy man from earlier was eating at this diner. In front of him was a laptop, closed and set aside in favor of a plate of what seemed to be strawberry cake. The not-child noted the strange way the man was sitting. His knees were pulled to his chest in an almost upright fetal position. He held his fork by the very edge, using only the tips of his thumb and forefinger.

They finally reached their table and sat down.

"Man, what a creepy looking guy," Kogoro mentioned, Conan merely nodding his head in agreement. The waitress came with menus and left them to decide what they wanted, after taking their drink requests. They didn't get a chance to order, though, because after about ten minutes, a loud scream penetrated the once quiet diner. Conan and Kogoro immediately stood up and ran towards the source, back towards the kitchen area of the restaurant. They burst in, coming face-to-face with the back of a young girl. She was their waitress, as it turned out. They moved around her quickly, and there it was.

One look at the man on the floor was all it took for Conan to run right back out of the kitchen. The blood pooling around the man's head was enough for him to know that the person was no longer living. He yelled out that no one was allowed to leave, and waited by the door for the police, which Kogoro would be contacting by now.

The investigators arrived within minutes, and soon the small diner was littered with them. Megure-keibu was with Kogoro and the body, along with forensics. Takagi-keiji, Satou-keiji, and Chiba-keiji were all questioning the diner customers and staff. As it turned out, the dead man was the diner owner. As for Conan, he already had a few suspects in mind. From his vantage point, Conan recalled four people leaving their seats, and one other suspicious character. He gave this information to Takagi-keiji, of course.

His first suspect was a woman, probably no older than thirty or so. She looked pretty irritated at having to still be there. She kept complaining that she had a nail appointment at seven. Conan noted that she was actually missing a nail, on her right forefinger. The next was a teenage boy. He looked to be around sixteen or seventeen. After asking him personally, the boy turned out to be the son of the deceased. He seemed sincerely upset by his father's death, but something else seemed off about him. Conan couldn't put his finger on it though, so he moved on.

After him, an older man, looking to be in his forties or fifties. He wore a pinstriped business suit, and according to Takagi, he was supposed to be speaking to the deceased about money matters, as he had been avoiding payments as of late. Next was the waitress who found the body. She and the deceased didn't get along so well, as he had been overworking the girl, and refusing to bump up her pay for the extra hours.

Last was the man whom Conan personally dubbed "creepy man". This man didn't do or say anything that was too unusual, and that was what bothered Conan. It was as if he already had everything layed out in front of him. His all-seeing eyes were creeping Conan out.

Out of the five, two of them claimed to be looking for the deceased man, now known to Conan as Ueshima Hideaki. The waitress, Fujiwara Kimiko, and the son, Ueshima Ryo. The other three - the woman, Kiski Rina, the businessman, Sugiyama Daichi, and "creepy man", who called himself Ryusaki Ryuu - all claimed to have gone to the bathroom.

After fully interrogating all of the customers, many were released. Only the five suspects Conan mentioned remained. He took his time poking around the crime scene as the five were re-interrogated. Cause of death was a blow to the back of the head via frying pan. Conan noted that the hit would have to be pretty hard to kill the man, and were he not so thorough he would immediately want to take the women off the list. But, having grown up with a girl like Ran can make you think twice about underestimating women. Other than the pan, nothing seemed too out of place, which meant that the victim probably didn't see his attacker before he was hit. On the other hand, there was something off about the body. Conan approached an inspecting forensic.

"Does something seem different to you?" he asked his childish, fake enthusiastic voice. The forensic turned to look at him and then back at the body.

"Come to think of it, something does seem off," he said. He gave the body another once over. As Conan inspected further, he noticed it.

"Is his.. is his _shirt _on inside-out?" Conan asked, blinking a few times to see if he was correct. Indeed, it was on backwards. "I wonder if it was like that all day?" Conan left the forensic kneeling confused next to the body for the main area once more. The suspects looked to be finished being interrogated. The shrunken detective stared off in their direction, lost in thought as he pondered the case. What tied the murderer to the victim? Was the inside-out shirt relevant?

"He scratches his leg when he is lying," a voice suddenly spoke from next to him. Conan jumped in surprise. He looked over to see that the creepy man was standing right next to him, eyes set on the other suspects.

"E-excuse me?" Conan stuttered out. He didn't mean to, but the man set off strange alarms in his head.

"The man named Sugiyama Daichi scratches the side of his leg with his left pinky every time he tells a lie." His eyes never left the other four suspects. Before Conan could respond, the man continued, "And the woman, Kiski-san, she's been seeing the victim. I believe they were lovers. She denied this when I questioned her in private, but I'm 87% certain that they were. As for the waitress and the boy, I do not believe either of them committed the crime. The boy seems to be handling himself quite well, but you can see in his eyes that he is upset. The waitress on the other hand, is visibly shaking. She will probably have a panic attack before the culprit is even identified."

Conan found himself speechless as he finished. Upon inspection, he found that the man was right. The waitress looked about to either fall into a dead faint or crawl into a corner and cry. As for the son, he also looked to be quite devastated. Neither of them were the killer, it was almost certain.

"And what about you?" Conan asked, glancing up at Ryusaki Ryuu. He seemed to ponder the question for a moment before finally meeting the not-youth's gaze.

"Hmm. Well, I did not personally know the victim. This is also my first time coming to this diner, though I suppose I could be lying. I do not have a motive, though. I have yet to see the man's face, and the cake was delicious." Conan blinked in amazement. This man was so absolutely blunt!

"Uhh, the cake?" Conan asked him.

"Oh, yes. You should try it some time. It is definitely worth tasting. It is not so awful that you may feel the need to kill the store owner over." And with that, Conan decided that he was insane. There was no doubt about it. This man was absolutely insane. He didn't comment after that, and inspected his remaining suspects once more. Sugiyama-san did indeed scratch his leg with his pinky when he lied, it was a strange habit in Conan's opinion, but useful. He suddenly had an idea.

"Ne, ojisan," Conan called politely up to Sugiyama. "I was just wondering, have you met Kiski-san before today?" Sugiyama looked down on him and raised a brow.

"No, not once," Conan watched as the man before him scratched his leg with his pinky, "why do you ask?" Conan blinked, looking honestly confused.

"Are you sure? Because I thought that she was your girlfriend, with the way she keeps looking at you like that," he said, a slight teasing tone flitting through his voice. Sugiyama stuttered incoherently in response. "Well, nevermind then I guess!" and with that, Conan walked away. He smirked in victory. He had everything he needed, now that he had seen _that_. All the pieces would soon fall into place, as soon as he visited the forensic one more time.

**

* * *

**

**So that's that. **

**Just as a note: yes, I do know that I spelled "Ryuuzaki" differently. I was being clever. The entire name is a spin-off of "Ryuuzaki Rue". I thought it was funny. **

**I also realize that my writing style in this story is very blunt and choppy. Sorry if that bothers you, its just how it turned out.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**A Case of Curiousity: Chapter Three**_

**Finale part; L.**

* * *

The curious little detective boy was on a roll. He seemed to be picking up all the hints and evidence laying about before even the police and the 'Famous Detective Kogoro'. L watched as the child disappeared into the kitchen once more.

L didn't need to be in at the crime scene to know who the killer was. To him, it was painfully obvious just by watching the two main suspects. Conan returned only moments later with an innocent smile on his face. L could tell that he had it all figured out, and he was watching with pure interest now as he trotted over to Mouri-san. Before acting, the boy gave a glance in L's direction, where he was picking at his nails inconspicuously while still watching through his lashes. Conan gave a little smile before proceeding. He tugged at Mouri-san's sleeve and must have said something that interested the older man, as he followed Conan over to a booth a little ways away from the policemen.

L wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it, but one second Conan was telling Mouri-san something before pointing in a random direction causing the older man to look away, and the next he was falling back into the booth. L managed to catch the boy snapping shut the glass covering of his watch, before moving to Mouri-san. He crawled under the table and adjusted Mouri-san, setting him in a position that looked natural.

"Ahem," L heard Mouri-san's voice say, "actually, it _wasn't_ the son," he said, refuting an earlier accusation he had made.

"Oh!" Megure-keibu exclaimed, obviously knowing what was coming next. Mouri-san was, afterall, in his famous 'deduction show' pose.

"In fact, I can automatically rule out both the son, Ryusaki-san, _and_ the waitress. The waitress," he paused here, and L briefly saw a red shoe flash into his vision under the table before disappearing once more, "to be honest, I think the waitress is about to hyperventilate. Perhaps the shock of seeing a murder victim was too much for her." Poor Fujiwara-san did indeed look as if she were about to collapse.

"As for the other two, I believe they both got up to go to the bathroom at the same time, if I remember correctly. Did either of you perhaps see the other while you were in there?" he asked.

"I did in fact, see Ueshima-kun while in the bathroom. He was just about to wash his hands when I entered," L commented. Megure-keibu gave a nod to show he understood before turning to Ueshima-kun.

"I uh, I think I did. Yes, I did. Ryusaki-san is not an easy person to forget, I remember thinking him creepy as I passed him," he stated, and then blushed when he realized what exactly he had said. He mumbled an apology, to which L accepted with a shrug. It wasn't as if he really cared what others thought of him.

"Now, after watching the two remaining suspects, I realized something was off about them. Kiski-san would often give Sugiyama-san strange looks. I didn't really understand right away, but eventually I realized that Kiski-san and Sugiyama-san knew eachother before this event. Kiski-san is a regular of this diner, even though she lives and works on the other side of town. I doubt that she comes all the way over here because the food is so good. It is this that drives me to believe that Kiski-san and the victim were actually dating. Further evidence of this is the victim's shirt. Didn't you find something rather odd about it?" Mouri-tantei went on. Megure-keibu held up a picture he had recently procured from the forensic team, as the body had already been removed. The team all huddled around the photo.

After a few moments of complete silence, Satou-keiji is the first to speak.

"I see!" she exclaimed, pointing at the photo, "it's inside-out, isn't it?"

"That's right," Mouri-san confirmed, "I highly doubt that the man went the entire day with his shirt inside-out."

"He didn't," a soft voice spoke up. It was Fujiwara-san, "It was rightside-out when he came in today."

"I wonder why that is..," Mouri-san trailed off.

"Okay! So we were together, but that doesn't mean anything!" Kiski-san yelled, throwing her arms into the air.

"And I never said that it did," Mouri replied. Kiski-san blushed and crossed her arms.

"So what exactly _are_ you trying to say?" she asked, a bit more calmly than before.

"What I'm trying to say is that Sugiyama-san is our killer," he said bluntly. L gave a smile in satisfaction. The others looked on in confusion. "Sugiyama-san and Kiski-san were also dating. The way Kiski-san was looking at Sugiyama-san was probably out of suspicion. If Sugiyama-san were to kill Ueshima-san, he would have Kiski-san all to himself-,"

"I knew it!" Kiski-san yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Sugiyama-san. "I knew you did it! Why?! Why would you kill my Hideaki?! I loved him! I never even liked you, I only slept with you so Hideaki could keep his business!"

"You bitch!" Sugiyama yelled, "You told me you broke it off with him!"

It was all pretty much closed by then. L watched as Conan crawled out from under the table, fixing the bowtie around his neck. L approached the youngster.

"That was some deduction," he commented, scaring the small detective for the second time.

"Yeah, isn't Kogoro-ojisan great?" the enthusiasm was obviously faked, and L could tell that the boy was nervous.

"Well actually, I meant the deduction that Conan-kun made," L responded, not meeting the boy's gaze. Inside, Conan was panicking.

"But I didn't make a deduction," Conan tried to make it sound like he really hadn't, but he was getting pretty nervous. It was that weird feeling he got from the strange man that caused it.

"Of course you did," L said, "with that wrist-watch of your's and the bowtie though, no one could ever tell the difference." Conan was sweating bullets by now. He was running through every possibility in his mind. What could he do if this man knew the truth?

"But don't worry. I don't plan on telling anyone. To be honest, I was only curious," L remarked, finally looking down at the miniature detective. Conan's eyes widened, and then softened in relief when he saw that L was being sincere.

"You were curious?" Conan asked.

"Yes, about how someone as idiotic as Mouri Kogoro could become such an overnight success. It bothered me somewhat," he mused. Conan smirked and nodded in agreement.

"I see."

"But now I'm kind of curious about you. Why is it that you are solving his cases for him?" Conan pondered for a moment on how to resond. How truthful should he be?

"Well..," he started, L bit the tip of his thumb as he waited, "there are some people I'm looking for. If these people knew I was alive, they would surely come after me, so I'm sort of using Kogoro as a cover."

"Who would be out to kill someone as young as you?"

"Well _now_? A lot of people probably," he said with a laugh, thinking about all the people he had put in jail as Conan, "but primarily this organization known as The Black Syndicate. They are mostly identified by their all black clothes and use of alcoholic drinks as codenames. I witnessed something I shouldn't have, and they drugged me and left me to die, but I never did."

"You are awful brave then, to still be going out in public and getting involved with things like this. Surely they would recognize you?" L questioned.

"Well, I would say my disguise is a pretty good one. They would never suspect a-," Conan started to reply, but cut himself off.

"A child?" L finished. Conan nodded slowly, looking up at L in obvious discomfort. He had given far too much away. "I assume then, that you are not actually as young as you appear." Conan nodded again. "How many years?"

"About ten, I'm seventeen," he responded. L nodded, and asked no more questions after that. He had a lot to think about.

"If I may ask," Conan began, looking a bit hesitant, but continued anyways, "what is your _real _name?" L smiled ever so slightly.

"So you knew. I should have suspected as much." He gave a glance around them at the people surrounding, all of which were preoccupied with other things, and then crouched in front of the shrunken detective in his usual fetal-like position. "I can't tell you my real name, but most people would know me as L." Conan's eyes widended.

"_The _L? The world's greatest detective? _That _L?" he asked. L nodded, his face expressionless.

"But you cannot tell anyone," L said. Conan nodded, lacking words to say to the man in front of him. Never in his life did he think he would ever meet the famous, and completely mysterious detective L.

"I should probably be taking my leave soon. I have been out longer than I intended to be. Should I ever need to, may I call upon you in the future?" he asked. Conan nodded once more.

"And I will most certainly listen for anything on this Black Syndicate of your's," he added as he stood up to leave.

"Thank you," Conan finally managed to say.

"I will see you again then, Shinichi-kun," L said, turning to leave. Conan stood there, motionless, for many minutes after the man had left. He shouldn't be surprised that the man had figured out his identity in such a short time. And whether he meant it or not, the prospect of working with L in the future excited him to no end. He looked forward to the possibility.

**

* * *

**

Fin! How was it? Was it okay? Tell meeee please.

**This is my very first crossover, so feedback would be much appreciated.**

**Also, the possibility of this having a full multi-chaptered sequel is certainly there. If I get enough people that would want that, I suppose I could. Or if anyone wants to take on the challenge, I'll let you know what I would have in mind for it (: So let me know!**


End file.
